US Congressman and Civil Rights Icon John Lewis Dies at 80

Lewis, who fought against racial segregation in the 1960s, has been in Congress for three decades as a representative from Georgia. He was diagnosed with acute pancreatic cancer last year.

Longtime Georgia Representative and civil rights champion John Lewis died late Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed.

"All of us were humbled to call Congressman Lewis a colleague, and are heartbroken by his passing", she stated. "May his memory be an inspiration that moves us all to, in the face of injustice, make 'good trouble, necessary trouble'".

Bayard Rustin, Andrew Young, Rep. William Fitts Ryan, James Farmer, and John Lewis in 1965. #RIPJohnLewis

World Telegram & Sun photo by Stanley Wolfson: https://t.co/aFmoGZgc8v pic.twitter.com/rvDMVBf3Tq

— Mr. Rahynes (@Mr_Rahynes) July 18, 2020

​Lewis was among the activists who organised the Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama in 1965 when African Americans urged an end to Jim Crow laws and discrimination in the South. He was among those protesters attacked by state troopers and posse men on 7 March 1965, in an event known as Bloody Sunday.

The violence against the activists led to a major outcry across the country and contributed to the adoption of the Voting Rights Act later that year.